A "crusade" for Sharia in Mosul. Quite a choice of words there. Sharia Alert from AsiaNews, with thanks to Morgaan Sinclair:
Mosul (AsiaNews) – A crusade is under way to impose Islamic law in Mosul in northern Iraq, a city where threats and violence against Christians have reached the level of real persecution for ideological and political ends. As Christmas draws near, Christians are confined to their homes that have become like “prison” which they dare not leave for fear of kidnappings and killings. It is difficult for them to emigrate because Arab and European countries have decided to close their doors.Kidnappings and murders are the order of day for Christians in Baghdad too, but in Mosul the situation is different and more worrying. Testimonies that reached AsiaNews claimed that actions directly targeting Christians of Mosul are not motivated solely by lucre – ransom demands, property seizure – but rather there is a political plan behind them. Sunni extremists have this city as their stronghold and they seem to be aiming to set up a so-called Islamic Emirate incorporating the provinces of Salahaddin, Anbar, Diyala, Baghdad and part of Wasit. Mosul would be the capital.
Up to a year ago, members of the Christian community were confident things would change but now they have only words of despair to describe their situation. “We are living the period of Advent, the happiest of the whole year, as if we were in prison. The world is preparing to celebrate while we prepare to die. Who will listen to our cries, who can help us now that we feel like strangers in our own homeland?”
The Patriarch of Babylon for Chaldeans, Emmanuel III Delly, urged all Chaldeans of the world to observe the “Bautha” fast of Nineveh (a feature of the Assyrian liturgy to commemorate the fasting of residents of Nineveh during the time of the prophet Jonah) on 18 and 19 December “so that the Lord may concede the gift of peace to our Iraq, of security and stability and that a climate of brotherhood and charity among the sons of Iraq may come about.”
Campaign against “non-Islamic dress”
Violence against Christians in Mosul escalated after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Many churches and convents were immediately attacked or bombed. Bishops and priests started to be kidnapped. The most horrible event of all was the killing of the Syro-Orthodox priest Paulos Eskandar, whose beheaded body was found on 11 October in the eastern area of Mosul after two days of captivity.
Muslim fundamentalism is impinging more and more on daily life. On 12 December, a group of fundamentalists stopped a bus with Christian students on board; they boarded the bus to distribute flyers dictating that girls should wear the hijab (veil) and that boys should dress in a sombre manner, not in western-style clothes. The same technique was used to get the message across the university: unknown men pasted flyers and posters in areas where Christian students usually meet up. The warning is clear: “Whoever violates the principles of sharia will be punished according to Muslim law.”
In early December, the conductor of a route bus imposed his decision to divide men and women on the vehicle, forbidding them to sit next to each other. Other flyers recently ordered owners of clothes shops to cover mannequins on display with a veil. And tradesmen had to obey, using plastic bags instead of veils. Further, some public toilets have banned the use of soap because it “did not exist in Muhammad’s time”. Orders reach the point of absurdity: restaurants cannot prepare mixed salads with cucumbers and tomatoes because one represents the female and other the male gender.
People here should support Christians who are persecuted for their faith in Muslim countries.
There are only three charities I know off who deal with this sort of thing.
Two are in America. One is Persecution.org International Christian concern
http://www.persecution.org
There is also Voice of the Martyrs.
www.persecution.com
The third is in the UK. It is Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
http://www.csw.org.uk/
The website http://www.asianews.it/ under it’s freedom of religion section also reports on the persecution of Christians.
I still think that supporting these charities is worthwhile but on reflection I think a note of caution is required.
These charities run letter-writing campaigns on behalf of unjustly imprisoned Christians.
While it is a good thing that Christians who live in the free world campaign on behalf of these people, it should be made clear that joining such a charity to participate in letter writing campaigns, similar to those run by Amnesty International, may involve a very small potential of risk.
Such a campaigns usually involve writing to the embassies of the countries in question.
In a campaign such as this, this would involve writing to the countries such as Eygpt, Indonesia and Pakistan.
Of course, you are required to provide your own postal address if you require a reply.
( Having participated in Amnesty International’s letter writing campaigns, I can tell you that your chances of receiving a reply are virtually non-existant)
Anyone who is considering supporting such a campaign should be aware that giving away your postal address may expose you to a very small element of risk, from those determined to oppose, by violent means if necessary, the exercise of religious and political freedom. Of course, if no one is prepared to run this risk, the future for persecuted Christians looks bleak indeed.
Sometimes I wonder if I should comment on a story like this, since any comment would be obvious. While it is terrible that Christians are being persecuted like this they ARE in the ummah and subject to whatever dismal regulations the savages want to impose-they know it more than anyone else. What goes on in the ummah-good,bad or otherwise- is the business of those in the ummah. Because the ummah has infidels in it and conditions will ALWAYS be dreadful for them there it would be best if they all left rather than continue to suffer at the hands of bloodthirsty Islam. THESE people would be true refugees that could be taken in as such.
As the Shah said and Hussein could have:
"I will behave like the King of Sweden when my people behave like Swedes."
I don't think any charities will help any Christians in Iraq. That's the responsibility of the United States of America. But of course, the US doesn't care about the Assyrians in Iraq since nothing is being done to protect them.
http://www.barnabasfund.org/
The Barnabus Fund in UK also has a Christmas appeal for Christians in Iraq.
and people want to allow these people to openly pray on public transportation modes , such as airplanes.
The Muslims have no desire to express tolerance for you or your beliefs. The sooner you realize that the sooner you will be wiser.
Let this be a lesson to all the dhimmi christians and jews and all the cowardly hindus and buddhists. the secular or moderate muslims won't save you, they can barely protect you. the so called muslim extremists call the shots. they are the ones with the guns, not the moderates. there has never been inter islamic wars in which muslims fought their extremists brothers for the benefit of infidals. so pinning all our hopes on moderate muslims or even the modertae kurds is useless and pointless.
Let's be clear that it was stupid to hope for much better when you see how Iraqis behaved in July 1958 when they butchered the Royal Family
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Iraq
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kings_of_Iraq
An Iraqi Army with a few Western-leaning generals was all we needed but Bremer had to screw that up..........now we may see Christians expelled from both Iraq and Lebanon - maybe they can live in poverty in Syria where they are safe but without work.
This is catastrophic incompetence and people in The West have little idea how the roof has caved in on Christians in the region so obsessed is the media with Muslims
"Further, some public toilets have banned the use of soap because it “did not exist in Muhammad’s time”.
Maybe our only hope to defeat these nutjobs is a severe E. coli outbreak--God knows it's been happening enough over here lately, and at least we use soap!
"Orders reach the point of absurdity: restaurants cannot prepare mixed salads with cucumbers and tomatoes because one represents the female and other the male gender."
Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
Islam has already exceeded the point of absurdity. It is an absurdity.
Merry Christmas!
I have never heard anything so absurd as the assigning of gender to cucumbers and tomatoes. Now I do not eat either of these items because of their high acidic content.
Could it be that the cucumber looks like a male appendage that such a "law" of absurdity has been introduced?
How disgusting that soap has been banned on such a spurious ground. If this ban is not reversed there will be an increase in gastric infections in that region, because proper cleansing is necessary for health reasons.
"Further, some public toilets have banned the use of soap because it “did not exist in Muhammad’s time”.
PERHAPS they could also ban IED's, landmines, suicide belts, machine guns, chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, rockets, rpgs, mortars,hmmmmm I see a lot of things they could ban that would certainly be good for mankind.
I fogot to add: These did not exist in Muhammads time either.
and may be what should be done is have these girls dressed in a victorias Secrest bikinis if nothing else it should give these guys a heart attack
The European countries are betraying their Christian heritage by denying refuge to Iraqi Christians. Instead of allowing Muslims into their countries, they should deport all Muslims and let Christians from Iraq and other islamic countries take their place.
I believe soap was around at the time of Muhammad but just not in Arabia
The earliest known evidence of soap use are Babylonian clay cylinders dating from 2800 BC containing a soap-like substance. A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC.
The Ebers papyrus (Egypt, 1550 BC) indicates that ancient Egyptians bathed regularly and combined animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to create a soap-like substance. Egyptian documents mention that a soap-like substance was used in the preparation of wool for weaving.
soap was around Muhammad's time but living in the desert is very little water for washing is not surprising I believe that Bedouins only clean themselves with sand, so it shows that these thugs know nothing of history and probably only recite the Koran by rote. And of course when one of them gets Colera from wiping their butts and not washing a course that will be Allah's will. As for the Christians in a mosul may be it's time to quit turning the other cheek and fight back the Islamofashist that are terrorizing them and think nothing of using violence to enforce sharia law on them really only understand violence, though our news media would probably make the Muslims victims because of Christians biting back.
The invasion of Iraq was a great mistake of lives, and the life of non-muslims have worsen a lot. I have to repeat it many times, because I believed that the war was good.
The European countries are betraying their Christian heritage by denying refuge to Iraqi Christians. Instead of allowing Muslims into their countries, they should deport all Muslims and let Christians from Iraq and other islamic countries take their place.
Examples ?
How many Iraqi Christians has the United States given refuge since 2005 ?
-some public toilets have banned the use of soap because it “did not exist in Muhammad’s time”.-
Is that why they stink like the devils?
... No, really, I used to live near Oldham and they didn't half smell ripe when they walked past, I mean sweat among other things.
Lebanon is the key. There is a civil war breaking out there and what needs to happen is for the government in Beirut to ask for US assistance, and unilaterally break off the Ta'if Accord. Simultaneously the US also has to put a concerted effort into "catching Syria" red handed in aiding and abetting the Insurgency in Iraq, and forthrightly move to consolidate their forces from Iraq to Lebanon. Once Lebanon is "liberated" so to speak, the forces stay positioned, rework the laws of the land to separate religion and the state and go back to it's original set up in 1920. It can then be considered to be a "friendly" state and we can be asked to set up permanent bases there. It should also be set up to eliminate the need for Israel to fight on it's northern front as it will have a friendly nation to its' north. In addition, it is to adhere to democratic practices and ensure that Sharia law is outlawed permanently, with opponents being exiled to Muslim nations or come to some other clandestine fate. The mountain ranges will provide a good boundary that can be used to keep the Islamists at bay.
Syria is to be made and kept a shambles and a civil war with factions fighting amongst themselves should be paramount in order to: divert focus away from "infidels" on their land, reducing their numbers by attrition, and we should ensure that this civil war goes on indefinitely by moving in and wreaking havoc occasionally on the side that looks to be making headway.
The "Palestinians refugees" will be forceably repatriated into the new homeland in Gaza. This will kill off a significant portion of the unrest and concentrate it where it can be dealth with more effectively.
Israel for its' part will need to do something to consolidate it's exposure, and I suggest that they offer land in the south point for the West Bank. This way the "Palestinians" if they want to call themselves that have a united country, and have no reason to refuse setting up a new country, but yet will provide Israel an easier target than they have now. I say force the "Palestinians" to form their own country under the ruse that they are to take the trade deal or accept Gaza only. They can have whomever they want to run it be it Hamas or Ahmadinejad or whomever. The stipulation is that they recognize Israel as outlined, and we will recognize them and their boundaries. Anything less is an act of war and will bring appropriate repercussions.
The big problem is that we need to create as much tension, division, violence as possible in these Islamic hotbeds, while at the same time reducing our exposure and protecting Israel. The issue at hand is that we are not dictating to them how it is going to be, we are wishy washy asking them by playing the softie. They view this as weakness and their resolve grows. It is only when you stand up to them and become more brutal than they are that things will change over there. A Brit watching the Islamic world back in the mid 19th century was quoted (paraphrased) as saying: "Islam is either at your throat or under your boot". There is no in between.
Lebanon should be set up as a country for all victims of Muslim oppression in the region, Ban the Sharia, convert the Muslims there or banish them to Syria, renounce the Islamic faith or force them to remove all of the offensive parts and practice a much more benign reformist version. Islamic violence will be met with double the force.
The Islamists should be made to realize that to the victor goes the spoils as it has been since the beginning of time. They lost WWI. They lost the constant wars afterwards with Israel. Israel has no obligation to return anything except by benevolence. The lost the war, they lost their land. Tough bananas. That's life!